tion Cassiopeia by Tycho BRAHE. Its observation among
the so-called “fixed stars” challenged the Aristotelian view,
already under attack from the Copernican (heliocentric)
hypothesis, that the celestial region was immutable. The
mathematician and leading English Copernican Thomas
Digges (died 1595) wrote his own observations on the
new star (in Alae seu Scalae Mathematicae, 1573), which
were commended for their accuracy by Brahe himself.
John DEE’s Parallaticae Commentationis Praxeosque (also
1573) was inspired by the same supernova. Another new
star, often referred to as “Kepler’s supernova,” appeared in
1604 in the constellation of Serpentarius and was written
up by KEPLERin his De stella nova in pede Serpentarii
(1606). (The word “nova” was not used in English for this
phenomenon until Sir John Herschel in the late 19th cen-
tury.)
See also: ASTRONOMY; COSMOLOGY
New World chronicles Sixteenth-century descriptions
of the newly discovered Americas and Europeans’ first en-
counters with their inhabitants. The three instalments
(1511, 1516, 1530) of PETER MARTYRd’Anghiera’s Decades
de novo orbe give an early overview of the Spanish con-
quests in Central and South America. CORTÉS’s campaign
in Mexico is narrated by his secretary-chaplain Francisco
López de Gómara in Historia de las Indias y conquista de
México (1552). This work inspired Bernal DÍAZ DEL
CASTILLOin 1568 to write his own Historia verdadera de la
conquista de la Nueva España. The Brevissima relación de la
destruyción de las Indias (1552) by Bartolomé de LAS CASAS
is bitterly critical of the Spaniards’ brutal treatment of the
Indians. CIEZA DE LEÓN’s Crónica del Perú (first part 1553)
attempts a just appraisal of the Spanish destruction of the
Inca empire.
An English contribution to the genre is Sir Walter
RALEIGH’s account of his voyage in search of the legendary
golden city of ELDORADO, The Discoverie of the Large, Rich
and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana (1596). To promote the col-
onization of Virginia by describing the benefits to be
found there, Thomas HARRIOTwrote his Briefe and True Re-
port of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588), a text that
was incorporated in the America section (1590) of the DE
BRYS’ Collectiones peregrinationum...; the engravings illus-
trating this, based on the drawings of Harriot’s fellow trav-
eler John White, were the first accurate depictions of
North American Indians seen by the European public.
Further reading: Bernadette Bucher, Icon and Con-
quest: A Structural Analysis of the Illustrations of de Bry’s
Great Voyages (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press,
1981); Fredi Chiappelli (ed.), First Images of America: The
Impact of the New World on the Old, 2 vols (Berkeley, Calif.:
University of California Press, 1976); Stephen J. Green-
blatt, Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World
(Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, and Oxford,
U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1991); Samuel Eliot Morison, The
European Discovery of America, 2 vols (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1971, 74); Anthony Pagden, European
Encounters with the New World: From Renaissance to Ro-
manticism (New Haven, Conn. and London: Yale Univer-
sity Press, 1993).Niccoli, Niccolò (1363–1437) Italian bibliophile
A member of the learned Medici circle in Florence, Niccoli
avoided public life and concentrated on the collecting of
manuscripts and on encouraging scholars to edit, copy,
and translate classical texts. In this he was helped by
Cosimo de’ MEDICIwho gave him unlimited credit at the
Medici bank. Niccoli also exploited the Medici commer-
cial network, using their agents to search for manuscripts;
among those he discovered was the oldest manuscript of
the minor works of Tacitus. Despite his collection of
Greek manuscripts Niccoli knew no Greek himself. He
was noted for the elegance of his lifestyle and the gen-
erosity with which he opened his library to scholars. On
his death he left his library to a group of trustees, includ-
ing Leonardo BRUNI. Cosimo took over the collection to
cancel Niccoli’s overdraft, and it was housed in the
monastery of San Marco and catalogued by Tommaso Par-
entucelli, later Pope NICHOLAS V. Niccoli’s life was written
by Vespasiano da BISTICCI.Niccolò dell’Arca (c. 1440–1494) Italian sculptor
Sometimes known as Niccolò di Bari or Niccolò da Puglia
after his birthplace, Bari in Apulia, he worked in Venice in
the 1460s, but his main work was executed in Bologna—
hence his other name of Niccolò da Bologna. In 1469 he
undertook the contract for the decorated canopy of
the tomb (arca) of St. Dominic in the church of San
Domenico, Bologna; he also contributed some of the small
free-standing figures on the tomb. Elsewhere in Bologna
are several fine terracottas by him, including a Madonna
(1478) in the Palazzo Communale and a Pietà (post-1485)
in Sta. Maria della Vita.Nicholas V (1397–1455) Pope (1447–55)
He was born Tommaso Parentucelli at Sarzana, and after
studying law at Bologna, he acted as tutor to two Floren-
tine families who introduced him to humanistic ideas. He
was the friend of Cosimo de’ MEDICI, whom he advised
(1439–40) on the collection of texts for his library. In
1444 he was made bishop of Bologna by EUGENIUS IV,
whom he succeeded as pope three years later. In 1449 he
resolved the schism occasioned by the Council of BASLE,
and the following year he proclaimed a jubilee at Rome. In
1452 he crowned FREDERICK IIIemperor, the last time such
a coronation took place in Rome.
Nicholas V was the first humanist pope. He employed
dozens of scholars to edit and copy classical texts and
founded a library which had grown by his death to 9000
volumes; this collection formed the basis for the VATICANNNiicchhoollaass VV 3 34411